8 months.

8 months. I can't believe it's been 8 months already!

8 months ago today you entered our little family, and oh what a joy it has been having you with us. Your sister just adores you and loves to spend time with you. She worries about you a lot now that you are determined to stand all the time and move around the furniture. Your not so steady on those little chubby feet yet buddy, and sometimes you fall and hurt yourself. Your sister is right there trying to prevent that from happening all the time. You really light up when you see her, I know you love her just as much as she loves you. It's such a wonderful thing to watch, the love between my two children.

You had a doctor appointment last week and you were 22 pounds, and 31 inches tall.  Such a big boy! The doctor is not concerned that you still have no interest in eating baby food and only want breast milk because you are still growing well.  You still do not have any teeth, but I'm pretty sure they will be here soon. 


This last month has been full of new adventures buddy, you learned how to sit yourself up, you figured out how to crawl forward, you started saying dada, and then you even learned how to stand yourself up holding onto things.  You were so proud last week when you first grabbed onto the couch and lifted yourself up to stand, you want to get ahold of some library books that Hailey left on the couch, when I called your name you looked at me and had the biggest smile on your little adorable face, as if to say 'look at me, mom!  I did it!" So precious.  Now that is all you want to do all day, stand up.  Couch, chair, legs, bath tub, doesn't matter what it is, your trying to stand up holding on to it.  You are so determined and brave, I think you will be an early walker, my guess is between 9-10 months old and you'll be taking your first steps.

I wish I could find a way to slow time down and have more of these sweet baby days. 

I love you my sweet boy, more than words can say.

Mommy :)

My Little Nursling

Ryan wants nothing to do with anything going into his cute little chubby belly if it is not mommy milk.

He also wants nothing to do with my milk unless it's straight from the mommy tap.

He will not take a bottle.
He will not take a sippy cup.

On a good day he'll eat a tiny bit of baby food at dinner with us, but he really doesn't care for it at all.
If I persist even though he's not interested I can usually get him to open up and try some, sometimes after the first bite he will keep opening up for a few more bites, but that is it. Then his little lips go on lock down.

That is on the odd good day.  Most days I end up with pureed baby food all over me.

He will be 8 months old in 3 more days.

I know it's not important that he eats baby food right now.
I know that my breast milk is all he needs nutrition wise.
I know he is getting enough milk from me because he's still gaining weight well.

But it would be really nice if I could leave him for a longer than 2 hours once in awhile without worrying about him getting hungry. 

What I really want is to go see Eclipse before it's not in the theater anymore.

I'm just so worried about leaving him for that long. 

I know he CAN go 3-3:30 hours between eating, but most of the time he wants to nurse every 2-2:30 hours. 

The movie is about 2 hours long and that doesn't count travel time to and from the theater, and getting tickets, and the previews.

The movie wont be in the theaters much longer... it went from being in every theater in our city, to only showing in 2 theaters.

 I know if I'm going to see it, it better be soon. I just need to find a way to do it, or give up, and come to terms with not seeing it in theater, which would make me very sad.

Look how cute that little face is, how can I leave him and risk him being hungry?!

What is a Twilight obsessed mom to a booby boy to do?

I need my sleep too!

The first few months after my son was born he slept pretty good for a newborn.  We had a nice little routine going. We'd all go to bed between 10-11pm and he would  sleep in his pack and play in our bedroom. He'd sleep until 3-4am and then I'd nurse him, change him and he'd go right back to sleep in his pack and play until about 5-6am and then I'd take him into bed and nurse him and we'd all sleep in bed until 7am. I few times he even skipped the 3-4am feeding and slept right until 5-6am! It was going great, and I had said a few time what a 'good little sleeper' he was.

Well... I'm pretty sure I JINXED it.

It all stopped when he was about 3.5 months old. He started waking every two hours.. and still does now at 7 months old. Yikes!

But anyways, I was getting sick of getting out of bed and walking to the pack and play over and over and over all night long to feed him or stick his soother in his mouth. I was exhausted!

And then I came across this sidecarred crib link. It looked like a good solution to my problem. I told my hubby about it and he thought it was a little odd, but he went along with it anyways.  So we went and bought a bunch of bungee cords and hooked the crib frame to our mattress so they can not separate. I used a pool noodle and a tightly rolled blanket to stuff the small gap between the mattresses and it's a nice fit.

 We have had this set up since Ryan was about 4 months old and I really love it! I love that we all have space to sleep comfortably. I love that I don't have to get out of bed at night to feed him the multiple times that he wakes up. I love having my sweet little baby close to me so I can snuggle him whenever I want.
Most of all I love waking up and feeling like I actually got some sleep! My sleep is incredibly important to the happiness of my family, because if mommy is not happy than nobody is happy, right?! :)

Oh the Joys of Motherhood...

My sweet little baby boy Ryan is going to be 7 months old in a few days.  I can't believe how fast this year is flying by, but I guess that's just one of those things to be expected when you have a baby. When you want time to sloooow dooown so you can enjoy the baby days longer before they disappear forever, time is a big meanie and speeds up on purpose. Ugh no fair I tell ya!

Well as much as I hate how fast my LAST baby's first year is going by, there is one thing about babyhood I can't wait to see go. NASTY BREASTFED BABY POOP. Don't get me wrong I absolutely LOVE that I have been the only form of nourishment that my baby has had or needed the first 7 months of his life (starting just within the last few days to except little bits of baby food). With that comes the explosive, up the back, out the sides, all over his clothes, excersaucer, bouncy seat, car seat or ME, which was the adventure last Tuesday (I started writing this the day it happened, but have not managed to come finish until now, one week later, LAME) Anyhow, where was I? Oh yea! My baby got poop all over me!

I'm going to share the story, but before I do let me explain a little more than you really need to know. Like most breastfed babies, when he was a newborn up until about 2 months old Ryan pooped several times a day, yellow mustard seedy poop, it was unpredictable and happened many times right in the middle of a diaper change. My husband was changing him once when he was a few weeks old and the poop SHOT out of the sweet baby bum and right over dads shoulder, all over the carpet, a little got on hubby too. Another time during a 2am diaper change it happened again, this time mostly on hubby. Well we got smart and learned how to avoid the poop squirting everywhere after that. Then at 2 months he went from pooping multiple times a day to pooping once a day. Then a while after he started going every few days, and now it's once every 7-10 days, but it is a big DISGUSTING mess! It's thicker but still manages to leak out the sides of the diaper and go right up his back. We tried different brands of diapers and moving up in size, but nothing can contain the mess. The only thing that we haven't tried is cloth diapers, and I wish we could go cloth but we live in an apartment building and the laundry room is two floors down and cost $4 per load, so there's no way I can talk hubby into that unfortunately.

Anyhow, the other day I got covered in poop. It had been about 9 days since Ryan last had a big poop. I had him in his excersaucer for a few minutes in the morning so I could load the dishwasher and get it started. He was being a little fussy so I picked him up, put him on my hip and went into my daughters room to talk to her, sat on her bed with baby on my lap, chatted a few minutes, got up slung baby back on to my hip and headed to her bedroom door to leave. Then I turned around to say something to her and her eyes almost bugged right out of her head! She says "Ryan pooped!" I said "What?" confused as how she could tell from across the room when I was holding him and had no idea. Then she said "Ryan pooped and it's all over you!" so I lift him up and look down at myself and there it is all over my pajama shirt!

So I put him on the change pad and have Hailey watch him for a second while I ran to the bedroom to change my shirt and then I go get ready to clean up the mess and he is of coarse being very wiggly like usual. I open the diaper grab his feet, lift them and start wiping, he wiggled a foot free and sticks it in the poop! Ugh little bugger! So I clean off the foot and hold them again and ask Hailey to hold his hands so they don't end up in there too! I got him some what clean and then had Hailey keep an eye on him while I got the bath ready. I was so thankful she was there to help me! Or there would have poop a lot more places than just my shirt, his onsie and a change pad!

It has been one of my fears that he'll have a major poop-splosion when I'm alone with no helper! I keep trying to tell baby that he's only allowed to poop when dad is home to change him, but it goes right in one ear and out the other!

Well that was incredibly long! If you got all the way threw that then thanks for reading all about my baby's poop! Haha!